Poverty in Dallas

Last week 231 people showed up for a 7:00 a.m. meeting at Paul Quinn College to talk about poverty. 

But more than that, they showed up to make plans to do something about it. 

The Mayor's Task Force on Poverty heard from outside leaders/experts on the subject.  Linda Gibbs, Deputy Mayor in New York City's Bloomberg Administration and Thad Williamson, a professor at the University of Richmond and director of the new Office of Community Wealth Building for that city, both shared with the group. 

Then, for almost three hours, task force members divided up into focus groups and played "If I were Mayor of Dallas, I would __________," when it comes to the various focus groups' assigned topics. 

At the event, Mayor Mike Rawlings called us to  action and to ideation. 

His urgency rolled my stomach. 

But, it's time for urgency.

Between 2000 and 2012, Dallas' population grew by a modest 5%. 

During that same period, Dallas poverty grew by 41%!

We will keep working. 

Dallasites will hear from our mayor soon. 

We will keep battling poverty with a new fierceness.